Table flatness

[Bruce]

Does anyone know what the tolerances are on the 510/520 table for flatness? After finding that one of the rail mounting holes is bent in on my table, I checked to see if it was flat. My table is not flat when checked left to right on the front and diagonally from left rear to right front. The right front corner seems to be low.

[charlese]

No - I don't know off the bat, but it' here on the forum somewhere. I'll have you a race to see who can find it first.

[james.miller]

Measured diagonally with a precision ground straight edge it is the thickness of a $20.00 bill, about .005". If it is really loose anywhere under the straight edge the table is warped. This is from an old post by Nick Engler, if you find the post its well worth reading.

I was told that the end and floating tables are .025" measured diagonally. They are just for support anyway.

[Bruce]

Well, I don't have a precision straight edge, but using my 4 foot metal rule, I have about .015", so I imagine it's off by quite a bit. Thanks for the info.

[Nick]

Batdude, I was misinformed when I wrote the post to which James referred. Later, Jim McCann (who is Quality Assurance here as SS, among the many other hats he wears) told me that the correct number is .020", corner to corner on the diagonal. That's about as good as you can do with a large aluminum casting of this particular alloy. Although it may seem like a large tolerance to some, it does not overly effect the precision of the cuts. Both Jim and I can work wood to within .005" without too much swearing. Drew loses his religion about three times a day, but he's coming along.

With all good wishes,

[charlese]

Oh Shoot! Nick beat me by 15 minutes. That's what I get for viewing Sawdust session stuff before looking. Anyway, Here is what Nick posted a while back: http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... 61#post761 Look at post Number 4. What's a few thounsanths of an inch between woodworkers anyway? Answer: Not much!

[Bruce]

I actually found the post last night. For once I was proactive and had saved it on my hard disk when it was first posted. I have a folder full of SS tips that I can refer to. Thank goodness for big hd's.

[dusty]

Be careful. If you become too relient on those "safed on my hard drive" files, you'll one day be like me. I had a hard drive almost full of woodworking related articles, plans, procedures, etc. Yes, you guessed it, I had a hard drive failure and couldn't access any of them. I found a service that was able to recover the hard drive but it cost me a healthy fee and I still lost about a third of what was on the drive.

I now have a new hard drive and a backup program that is suppose to prevent this from happening again. But, just to be on the safe side, I copy those items that I really don't want to lose onto a second backup - a flash memory card.

[Bruce]

Be careful. If you become too relient on those "safed on my hard drive" files, you'll one day be like me. I had a hard drive almost full of woodworking related articles, plans, procedures, etc. Yes, you guessed it, I had a hard drive failure and couldn't access any of them. I found a service that was able to recover the hard drive but it cost me a healthy fee and I still lost about a third of what was on the drive.

I now have a new hard drive and a backup program that is suppose to prevent this from happening again. But, just to be on the safe side, I copy those items that I really don't want to lose onto a second backup - a flash memory card.

Dusty,
Thanks for the warning. I am making regular backups to my other computer. Unless they both fail simultaneously I'll be okay. The flash drive is a good idea. You can take them with you if needed somewhere else.

Bruce

[james.miller]

Have you looked at the price of an external HD lately, they are very inexpensive. Makes backing up specific folders like the ones you keep woodworking information very economical. Easiest when working in Windows Explorer you can just drag and drop it onto the external HD.